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Class 

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CQEHUGHT DEMsm 



Guide to Princeton 



Guide to Princeton 

The Town 
The University 



By 
Varnum Lansing Collins 



Princeton University Press 
Princeton, N.J. 

London: Humphrey Milford 

Oxford University Press 

1919 






Copyright, 1919, by 

The Princeton University Press, 

Princeton, N. J. 



Published 1919 



JUL -3 ISIB 

©GU520061 



Foreword 

This Guide attempts to be nothing more 
than an aid to the transient visitor who de- 
sires not only to see the University intelli- 
gently but also to have pointed out to him 
some of the historic or otherwise interesting 
spots in or near the village of Princeton. 

For fuller details than could properly be 
included in the purpose of this little book, 
the reader is referred to: J. F. Hageman, 
Princeton and Its Institutions; J. R. Wil- 
liams, Handbook of Princeton; John Mac- 
lean, History of the College of New Jersey; 
E. M. Norris, Story of Princeton; and V. L. 
Collins, Princeton. The last three volumes 
relate only to the University. 



''There they are! above the green trees shining- 
Old towers that top the castles of our dreams — "" 
— Robert Bridges, "The Tourers of Princeton.' 



CONTENTS 

Foreword 5 

The Town 1 1 

Walks 56 

The University 57 



The Town 



The Town 

Against the northwest sky-line as the train 
reaches Princeton Junction, half way be- 
tween New York and Philadelphia, across 
three miles of green fields and woodland 
the gray roofs and towers of Princeton may 
be seen lifting above the trees. 

The hamlet which in 1724 was thus named 
was settled before the end of the 17th cen- 
tury; but as late as 1675 the region was 
still a wilderness, with but a single Indian 
trail through it, "a. small path" so a Quaker 
pioneer called it, along which one travelled 
all day "and saw no tame creature." Like 
most Indian trails, this one followed high 
ground, and eventually became the main 
post road between New York and Philadel- 
phia, the King's Highway on which was 
played the varying pageant of colonial days*. 



12 Guide to Princeton 

Along this route Washington with his army 
retreated across New Jersey in 1776, and 
after the Battle of Princeton followed 
it back through the village as far as 
Kingston where he turned off to Morris- 
town and safety. It is now a portion of 
the Lincoln Highway. So much as lies 
within the borough of Princeton is today 
known as Nassau Street and its extension 
Stockton Street. 

As the halfway halting-place for the stage 
coaches to and from Philadelphia and New 
York, the village acquired importance even 
before the natural advantages of its physical 
situation brought to it the final location of 
the College of New Jersey. The taverns 
at Princeton were reputed to be better than 
average, and one or two remained famous 
long after coaching days were over. 
Among those which have vanished, tilie 
"Hudibras," situated at the corner of Nas- 
sau Street and College Place, (formerly 
College Lane), the driveway on the Uni- 
versity campus leading between Dickinson 
Hall and the Library, was one of the best 



The Town 13 

known. By 1765 it was already "noted 
and well accustomed." At the "Hudibras" 
John Adams, future president of the United 
States, put up when he spent a Sunday in 
Princeton in 1774 with other New England 
delegates to the First Continental Cogress 
at Philadelphia. The Inn was kept at that 
time by Colonel Jacob Hyer, a Revolu- 
tionary character and local quartermaster. 
Probably the oldest buildings still ex- 
tant on Nassau Street were former inns, 
as for example, the modest two-story build- 
ing at 68 and 70 Nassau Street. This 
former tavern is mentioned, it is believed, 
as early as 1750. During the Revolution it 
was known as the "Washington Arms 
House." It then had a green in front of 
it and a flag staff around which the Fourth 
of July was celebrated. Rochambeau spent 
a night here in August 1781 when his army 
encamped at Princeton on the way to York- 
town. It figured in October 1781 in the 
local celebration of Cornwallis' surrender, 
and in 1783 in the celebration of the cessa- 
tion of hostilities. 



14 Guide to Princeton 

Just as old, although it has not preserved 
its ancient appearance, is the Nassau Inn, 
the oldest hotel in Princeton. The original 
portion of the building was erected in 1757 
as the private residence of Judge Thomas 
Leonard, being then the finest house in the 
village, the brick having been imported from 
Holland. It has been a hotel continuously 
since 1769. In the i8th century it was best 
known as the "Sign of the College," or as 
the "College Inn." During the opening 
years of the 19th century John Gifford won 
high reputation as its proprietor. In his 
advertisement in the newspapers of 1800 he 
suggests the reason : 

"The traveller who shapes his way 
Thro' heat and cold, thro' thick and thin, 
Secure shall meet, all times of day, 
Kind treatment at the College Inn" 

Most popular of all the proprietors of 
this famous hostelry however was Gififord's 
successor, John Joline, who managed the 
establishment from about 1812 to 1836. 
During his proprietorship coaching travel 
through Princeton reached its height ; newer 
and handsomer vehicles took the place of 



The Town 15 

old; there were several competing lines; 
as many as fifteen coaches would often start 
off each way together, and a hundred horses 
would be waiting to take the place of jaded 
steeds arriving. Obviously Joline's was an 
exciting and popular resort, and the students 
of the college were forbidden not only to 
enter the tavern but even to loiter around 
arriving or departing coaches. The col- 
lege Commencement ball was usually held 
at Joline's, and is often referred to by con- 
temporary travelers. It was here that James 
K. Paulding and Washington Irving, im- 
mortalizing a visit to Princeton in 181 3, 
set the scene of the "Lay of the Scottish 
Fiddler," — an itinerant minstrel who accord- 
ing to the last lines of the poem long re- 
mained a ghostly visitant of the old tavern : 

"Once a year he deigns to play 
First fiddle on Commencement Day, 
When in Joline's high stately hall 
Is held the students' annual ball." 

The ball now takes place in the gymna- 
sium, and the only formal — or informal — 
college function connected with "The Nass" 
is the speech delivered from the balcony as a 



i6 Guide to Princeton 

feature of the undergraduate St. Patrick's 
Day Parade. 

Across the street is the First Presbyter- 
ian Church of which the organization 
dates from 1755, aUhough no step was taken 
toward erecting a church before 1762. 
Prior to this date the people of Princeton 
rented pews in the college chapel in Nassau 
Hall, and heard Presidents Aaron Burr, 
Jonathan Edwards, Samuel Davies and 
Samuel Finley, who, besides being presi- 
dents of the college, were also pastors of the 
local congregation. In 1762 the college 
loaned both money and land to the churcli 
for the purpose of erecting a building but 
the edifice was not completed until 1766. 
It stood on the present site but was placed 
parallel to the street. On the occupation 
of Princeton by the British ten years later, 
troops were quartered in the church, a 
fireplace was built in it, a chimney was 
carried through the roof, and the pews and 
gallery were used for fuel. On the evacua- 
tion of Princeton by the enemy, the church 
was used by the American troops and it 
was not fully restored until after the close 



The Town 17 

of the war. By arrangement with the 
church, the college Commencements until 
1896 were held here, one or two of them 
being famous. The most interesting was 
that of 1783 attended by General Washing- 
ton, the Continental Congress, the French 
Minister, La Luzerne, and important offi- 
,cials of the national government. In 1814, 
General Winfield Scott, commanding a body 
of troops on their way to the front, was a 
distinguished guest at the Commencement 
exercises and the recipient of marked honors. 
The church had been destroyed by fire the 
year before and had been rebuilt in haste, 
but in the present situation at right angles 
to the street. It was burned down a second 
time in 1835. The present edifice dates 
from that restoration with certain modern 
alterations and improvements. The present 
parsonage is on Library Place, but a for- 
mer parsonage was the Wiggins House on 
Witherspoon Street. 

On the corner of Chambers Street is the 
Second Presbyterian Church, organized in 
1847. The present building dates from 
1868, but still lacks its steeple. 



l8 Guide to Princeton 

At the west end of Nassau Street, beyond 
University Place and Mercer Street, past 
the small park where Bayard Lane turns 
sharply to the right, Nassau Street contin- 
ues as Stockton Street, 

A few yards along Stockton Street on the 
left is Trinity Church, organized in 1833. 
The present building dates from 1868 and 
has recently been enlarged and beautified 
by a stone choir and apse designed by Ralph 
Adams Cram. The tower contains a chime 
of ten bells by Meneely, all of which are 
memorials. In the church are numerous 
memorials to early parishioners. A stone 
set over the chancel door is from the 13th 
century church of St. Oswald's at Malpas, 
the Stockton home in England. The church 
property extends through to Mercer Street. 
Opposite Trinity Church is the former 
Princeton Inn, now a girls' school, on 
land which formed part of the estate of 
"Morven." The Princeton Battle Monu- 
ment is between the Inn and *'Morven." 
The group, which is 26 feet high placed in 
relief against a 50-foot column, represents 
Washington on horseback sternly refusing 



The Town 19 

defeat at the Battle of Princeton, and in- 
spiring his tired troops to final victory. The 
female figure is young Liberty with a banner 
urging the soldiers forward. The group is 
by Macmonnies, and the architectural de- 
sign by Thomas Hastings. 

Morven has been the home of the Prince- 
ton Stocktons since Richard Stockton, 
grandfather of the Signer of the Declara- 
tion of Independence, purchased the land 
from William Penn in 1701. The Signer's 
father built the main portion of the house 
probably between 1701 and 1709. The 
name dates from the time of Richard Stock- 
ton, the Signer. He improved the planta- 
tion extensively, the row of catalpas on the 
street front and most if not all of the older 
trees on the property, which in his day was 
very extensive, being set out by him. He 
and his wife made "Morven" one of the 
most charming residences in the State, no 
less famous for the beauty of its garden and 
grounds than for the hospitality of its own- 
ers. Enlarged by later generations, the 
home has, however, maintained its colonial 
atmosphere. The old brick slave quarters 



20 Guide to Princeton 

are still to be seen in the rear. When the 
British occupied Princeton in 1776 "Mor- 
ven" was for a time the headquarters of 
Lord CornwalHs. The house and property 
suffered in the general plundering of the 
neighborhood. The history of the house is 
brilliant, but possibly it never had a more 
interesting period than when the Continen- 
tal Congress was in Princeton in the sum- 
mer and autumn of 1783 and "iVIr. Elias 
Boudinot, president of Congress and brother 
of Mrs. Stockton, made **Morven" his offi- 
cial residence, with the result that it en- 
tertained a succession of distinguished 
guests. A particularly memorable state din- 
ner was served on the Fourth of July in 
1783 when the entire Congress was present. 
General Washington was a warm friend of 
Mrs. Stockton and among his papers are 
several autograph specimens of her skill 
at verse writing, addressed to him, with cop- 
ies of his acknowledgments. 

Opposite ''Morven" is Thomson Hall, 
formerly "Belgarde," the residence of the 
late Mrs. Josephine Thomson Swann of 
Princeton, who bequeathed the property 



The Town 21 

to the borough of Princeton as a town hall 
and park. The house contains an auditor- 
ium and public library, while the executive 
offilces of the borough are in a separate 
building on the Mercer Street side of the 
grounds. 

, In Thomson Hall may be seen the ship's 
bell of the U. S. S. Princeton, the first screw 
propelled steam war vessel ever built. De- 
signed by the famous engineer Ericsson, 
under the patronage of Commodore (then 
Captain) R. F. Stockton, it was named in 
the latter's honor after his home town. In 
February 1844 on the Potomac River, one of 
her guns, the "Peacemaker," then the largest 
piece of ordnance afloat, burst, killing sev- 
eral distinguished guests, among them the 
Secretary of State and the Secretary of the 
Navy. 

Just within the entrance to the grounds 
of Thomson Hall is Rose Cottage — so 
known at least as early as 1803, when it 
was the residence of Mrs. Robert Field, 
daughter of Richard Stockton, the Signer. 
The rose gardens from which it derived it 
name have long since disappeared, and the 



22 Guide to Princeton 

cottage during the recent European war was 
a tea-house conducted by a group of ladies 
of Princeton in the interest of the Red 
Cross and of French reconstruction work, 
having under its particular care the village 
of Saint Paul aux Bois. 

Returning now to Bayard Lane, on the 
right hand corner is the Garrett House, 
owned by Mr. Robert Garrett of Baltimore, 
and built by Mr. John Potter in 1825, being 
the residence of Commodore R. F. Stock- 
ton, U. S. N., during his father's lifetime. 
The second house on the left hand side of 
this street is The Peacock Inn, an old resi- 
dence moved from Nassau Street (approxi- 
mately where Madison Hall begins) to make 
room for University Hotel (afterwards 
known as University Hall), which was itself 
removed to make room for Madison Hall. 
The house was the i8th century home of 
Jonathan Deare, a prominent Princeton pa- 
triot, member of the New Jersey Provincial 
Congress in 1775 and later of the State Leg- 
islature. After removal to Bayard Lane, it 
was occupied by Colonel William Libbey of 
Princeton until the erection of Thanet 



The Town 2^ 

Lodge, his large stone residence diagonally 
across the street in the residence park 
*'Greenholm." This park was formerly a 
playing field used by the undergraduates of 
the college. 

North of Thanet Lodge is Avalon, the 
home of Dr. Henry van Dyke. Part of the 
house dates from the i8th century so it is 
believed, at that time being owned by Dr. 
Edmund Bainbridge, uncle of the Commo- 
dore (see later, Bainbridge House), and 
subsequently by the Hon. Samuel Bayard. 
Across the street from Avalon is West- 
land, residence of the late Ex-President 
Grover Cleveland, who died here in 1908 
(buried in Princeton Cemetery). The house 
was built in 1854 by the celebrated Commo- 
dore Robert F. Stockton, for his daughter. 
Next to Avalon is Merwick, the present 
residence of the Right Rev. Paul Matthews, 
Bishop of New Jersey, but formerly the 
residence of Professor George L, Raymond, 
and later used by the Graduate School of the 
University as a residential building, being 
Princeton's original Graduate College. 
Further down the hill on the same side is 



24 Guide to Princeton 

Stanworth, the home of Professor Wil- 
Hani M. Sloane of Columbia University and 
formerly of Princeton University. Inside 
the gate of "Stanworth" is the common 
grave of Hessian soldiers killed in the Bat- 
tle of Princeton in 1777. 

The street turning to: the left behind 
"Westland" is Cleveland Lane, No. 25 of 
which was the residence of President Wood- 
row Wilson while Governor of New Jersey 
and when elected President of the United 
States. His residence while a professor in 
the University was No. 82 Library Place 
which he built. His residence as President 
of the University was at 'Trospect." His 
present (1919) legal voting residence is an 
apartment over the store at No. 10 Nassau 
Street, which, however, he has never occu- 
pied. 

The second turning to the left on Cleve- 
land Lane is Library Place by following 
which Stockton Street at right angles to it 
is once more reached. The Lenox Library 
of the Princeton Theological Seminary is 
opposite (see later). Proceeding west along 
Stockton Street we now follow what is 



The Tozvn 25 

known as the ''Big Triangle" (Stockton 
Street, the Quaker Road at Stony Brook, 
and the Trenton turnpike back to Mercer 
Street) as distinguished from the *' Lit- 
tle Triangle" (Stockton, Lovers' Lane and 
Mercer) referred to in the campus "Triangle 
Song" by Henry van Dyke and reminiscent 
of bygone, riotous, undergraduate days: 

"V/ell the old Triangle knew the music of our 

tread, 
How the peaceful Seminole would tremble in his 

bed, 
How the gates were left unhinged, the lamps 

without a head 
While we were marching through Princeton." 

The first turn to the left on Stockton Street 
is Edgehill Street, on the right hand of 
which is an old stone house known as The 
Barracks. The street wall is modern, but 
the house itself is one of the oldest in 
Princeton, if not the oldest, having been a 
portion of the Stockton homestead before 
the erection of "Morven." The house has 
been carefully enlarged by the present own- 
er, Professor J. Duncan Spaeth, of the Uni- 



26 Guide to Princeton 

versity. It derives its name, if a well found- 
ed tradition be accepted, from the fact that 
it was used as a barracks during the Revo- 
lution. It is possible, however, that the 
name antedates that period, as there are nu- 
merous indications that the convenient loca- 
tion of Princeton frequently made it a mili- 
tary post, and it is well known that the vil- 
lagers petitioned for the erection of a bar- 
racks during the French and Indian War, 
when this house may have been so used and 
have acquired its name. According to a 
map of 1776 it was then known as the 
"Old Stockton House." 

Returning to Stockton Street, directly op- 
posite the end of Edgehill Street is Allison 
House, the residence of Mr. George A. Ar- 
mour, but originally built by Commodore 
Stockton for his son, John P. Stockton, At- 
torney General of New Jersey, U. S. Sena- 
tor, and American Minister to Rome in 1858, 
and after him occupied by Mr. Paul Tu- 
lane, a Huguenot resident of Princeton and 
founder and benefactor of Tulane Univer- 
sity, New Orleans. 

A few steps past the corner of Edgehill 



The Town 2^ 

Street is the property from which it gets its 
name — Edgehill, built in 1829 as a board- 
ing school for boys and for forty years one 
of the best known schools in this part of the 
country. It then became and has since re- 
mained a private residence. 

The estate beyond "Edgehill" is Guern- 
sey Hall, formerly 'Woodlawn," the home 
of the late Judge Richard S. Field of Prince- 
ton, but now the residence of Professor Al- 
lan Marquand of the University. 

The lane dividing "Guernsey Hall" from 
the next estate is Lover's Lane, a probable 
corruption of Loverly (or Lubberly) the 
name of a former owner of property at 
this point. The lane forms part of the bor- 
ough western line. 

The large house and property beyond "Al- 
lison House" and opposite "Guernsey Hall" 
is Constitution Hill, the residence of Mr. 
Junius S. Morgan. The house is built on the 
site of the residence of Quartermaster Rob- 
ert Stockton of the Revolutionary Army, 
an actively patriotic citizen of Princeton. 
According to persistent tradition the house 
took its name from the fact that the Con- 



28 Guide to Princeton 

stitution of New Jersey was drafted here 
in the summer of 1776. Here Washington 
estabHshed headquarters for the few hours 
he spent in Princeton when retreating 
across New Jersey in December of that year. 
On the opposite side of the street, next 
to Lovers Lane is Drumthwacket, the 
estate of Mr. M. Taylor Pyne. Visitors may 
walk through the grounds but are desired 
not to approach the house. The grounds are 
best entered by the rustic gate on Lover's 
Lane, from which a path may be followed 
past the deer park and through the woods 
to the walks leading to the lakes and lower 
grounds. The house was built in 1832 and 
was the home of Charles S. Olden, Governor 
of New Jersey during the Civil War, and 
treasurer of the College. The property has 
been enlarged and improved by its present 
owner until it. is now one of the most beau- 
tiful estates in New Jersey. The little 
white cottage on the roadside, known as 
Drumthwacket Lodge and now used as an 
aviary, was built in 1696. From its front 
porch in December 1776 Washington re- 
viewed his troops on their march to Trenton. 



The Town 29 

On January 3, after the Battle of Princeton, 
he came again to the door asking that British 
officers wounded in the fight be taken in and 
cared for, which was done. A few yards 
below this at the turn of the hill is the 
Washington Spring, where Washington 
is said to have refreshed himself after the 
Battle of Princeton. The American and 
British soldiers killed in the Battle were 
buried where they fell on a part of **Drum- 
thwacket." A monument was erected in 
1917 on a nearby wooded knoll to mark the 
spot, and bears the inscription : 

Near Here Lie Buried 

The American and British Officers 

and Soldiers 

Who Fell at the Battle of Princeton 

January 3d, 1777 

with these lines by Alfred Noyes, Visiting 
Professor in the University, written for the 
monument : 

"Here Freedom stood, by slaughtered friend and 

foe, 
And, ere the wrath paled or that sunset died, 
Looked through the ages ; then, with eyes aglow 
Laid them to wait that future side by side," 



30 Guide to Princeton 

On the opposite side of the road is the 
entrance to Edgerstoune, part of the large 
tract bought by Richard Stockton of WilHam 
Penn in 1701, now the estate of Mr. A. D. 
Russell, overlooking the wooded upper 
reaches of Stony Brook and beyond to the 
distant hills. The wide grass allee, 1800 feet 
long, with Mt. Rose in the background, is 
very unusual. 

At the foot of the hill the road crosses 
Stony Brook (the Indian name was Wopo- 
woc), climbs Bruere's Hill and goes on to 
Lawrenceville and Trenton. At the triple- 
arched bridge, which dates from 1792 and 
was erected to take the place of the one 
destroyed in the Battle, are the remains of 
Worth's (or Bruere's) Mill dating from 
1714, which ceased operation only in the 
beginning of the 20th century. The highway 
was originally at meadow level and the 
massive masonry of the mill wall seemed 
impervious to time, but the raising of the 
road and the use of the west wall of the 
mill as a retaining wall weakened the whole 
structure. The mill connects modern 
Princeton with the earliest settlers of the 



The Town 31 

region, deriving its name from Joseph 
Worth, a Quaker who came to Stony Brook 
in 1696 and bought the property on which 
the mill was erected. His descendants in 
the family held the mill until well after the 
middle of the 19th century, when it became 
the property of Mr. Joseph H. Bruere, 
whose heirs own the picturesque ruin and 
whose name is attached to it and to the hill 
across the Brook. The road which turns to 
the left at the foot of the hill and follows 
the bank of the winding stream is the old 
Quaker Road, in a few hundred yards 
crossing the Trenton turnpike (laid out in 
1807) and leading past the little Quaker 
Meeting House. The old bridge at the 
turnpike is particularly picturesque. 

The Meeting House dates from 1726 
but was rebuilt in 1760. Prior to 1757 it 
was the only house of worship in the neigh- 
borhood of Princeton and was attended by 
all the early Princeton families. A Quaker 
schoolhouse antedating 1781 was near by, 
with a house for the schoolmaster. Both 
were removed some years ago. The Meet- 
ing House is a two story building with fire- 



32 Guide to Princeton 

places at each end. Its enclosed burial 
ground is the oldest in the vicinity. The first 
settlers of Princeton and their descendants 
for many generations were buried here, but 
in Quaker fashion without stones to mark 
the graves. Richard Stockton, Signer of 
the Declaration, was buried here (see tab- 
let to his memory erected in 191 3 by the 
New Jersey Society of the Sons of the 
American Revolution) and also Governor 
Charles S. Olden. 

A quieter spot can hardly be imagined 
than this, where the ''forefathers of the 
hamlet" lie ; but it was only a few steps 
north of the Meeting House, shortly after 
sunrise on January 3, 1777, that the Battle 
of Princeton began. After retreating 
through New Jersey, past Princeton down 
the postroad to Trenton which the visitor 
has just followed as far as Stony Brook, 
Washington had surprised the Hessians at 
Trenton on Christmas Night in 1776, Lord 
Cornwallis with large reinforcements had 
reached Trenton late on January 2, 1777, 
leaving a British brigade in Princeton to join 
him the next morning, in his plan of catch- 



The Town 33 

ing Washington in an untenable position. 
The latter escaped the predicament by si- 
lently slipping away during the night of the 
2nd along an unguarded and circuitous 
route which led at length to the Quaker 
Road at Stony Brook and thence to the rear 
(or south) of the village of Princeton, 
where he hoped to surprise the British gar- 
rison, and hurrying on, possibly to seize the 
important military post at New Brunswick. 
The line of march from Trenton to the 
Princeton battle ground is marked at half 
mile intervals by stone posts on which 
bronze tablets have been placed by the 
Sons of the Revolution. The details of the 
engagement may be followed in General W. 
S. Stryker's Battles of Trenton and Prince- 
ton, and in General A. A. Woodhull's Bat- 
tle of Princeton — a Preliminary Study. 
Briefly, on reaching Stony Brook, part of the 
American force (under General Mercer) 
near the Quaker Meeting House was dis- 
covered from the top of the hill (Bruere's) 
across the brook, by the British commander, 
Colonel Mawhood, on his way with the van- 
guard of his forces to join Cornwallis at 



34 Guide to Princeton 

Trenton. The ensuing engagement, in 
which the rest of the British troops coming 
down the postroad and the main body of 
the American army under Washington all 
took part, and in which Washington dis- 
played not only his personal courage but 
also his remarkable good fortune in escap- 
ing injury, resulted in the rout of part of 
the British forces and the retreat of the rest 
across country along the general direction 
of the present turnpike leading into Mercer 
Street, Princeton, and then not existing, 
back to the college campus and their post 
in Nassau Hall where they at length sur- 
rendered. After destroying such military 
stores as he could not carry off, Washington 
hurried on with his prisoners toward King- 
ston where, instead of going to New Bruns- 
wick as Cornwallis expected and he himself 
had probably intended, he turned off to 
Morristown. On finding his quarry gone 
from Trenton and hearing the guns at 
Princeton, Lord Cornwallis had hurried back 
to save New Brunswick and was only an 
hour or two behind in pursuit of Washing- 
ton. Not halting at Princeton he pressed 



The Toivn 35 

on to Kingston, and as soon as the bridge 
there destroyed by Washington — the pres- 
ent bridge — had been repaired, continued on 
to New Brunswick. The American loss in 
battle was 30 enlisted men killed and 30 
wounded, and 8 officers killed. The British 
left 100 on the field and lost 300 prisoners, 
of whom 14 were officers. 

Quoting General Woodhull : "Princeton 
was not a great battle from the point of 
numbers engaged or of casualties suffered. 
But it was a great battle when its conse- 
quences are considered ; when the influence 
of that victory upon the military history of 
the Revolution is weighed; and especially 
when one reflects upon the inevitable politi- 
cal result that would have followed a defeat 
upon that field." 

'The field of Princeton remains practi- 
cally as it lay under the tread of war. The 
turnpike, now better known as the Mercer 
Street extension, has made a comparatively 
deep cutting diagonally through the first line 
of battle. The orchard and remnants of 
its surrounding hedge, standing within rea- 
sonable memory, have disappeared. William 
Clarke's simple wooden house, which was 
crowded with wounded after the combats, 
has been replaced by a greater one of stone 



36 Guide to Princeton 

[Mercer Manor] on nearly the same spot. 
A forest that appears to have stood on 
Thomas Clarke's farm, south of the road, 
and perhaps have encroached to the east on 
ground partly cleared before the Revolution, 
is represented by one or two straggling 
oaks. Thomas Clarke's house, newly built 
shortly before the war, consecrated by the 
sacrifice of Mercer dying within its doors, 
is substantially unchanged excepting that 
what was the rear has now been made the 
front. With these trifling differences the 
visitor of to-day sees the terrain precisely 
as it was when Mercer fell, when Haslet 
and Neil and Fleming, Shippen, Yeates, 
Morris and Read were killed or mortally 
wounded; when defeat drew the patriot 
army backward to the very brink of ruin 
and Washington's invincible courage and 
superb self-control neutralized the impend- 
ing catastrophe, turned disaster into tri- 
umph, and forever closed the way to mili- 
tary intrusion." 

Going back now to the turnpike crossed 
by the Quaker Road, turn to the right to- 
wards Princeton. The turnpike was laid out 
in 1807 and runs through the battlefield. It 
follows in general the direction of an old 
backroad from Princeton to the Meeting 



The Toimt 2)7 

House, used in early days by residents of 
Princeton as a short cut to their place of 
worship. Mercer Heights (residence of 
Mr. H. E. Hale) on the immediate right 
was formerly the Thomas Clarke house to 
which, after the battle. General Mercer was 
carried severely wounded, and where on 
January 12, 1777, he died. Visitors may 
see Mercer's room (bloodstains are still 
shown) as well as several relics of the en- 
gagement picked up from time to time in the 
field. A block of granite, with a tablet to 
Mercer's memory, stands in front of the 
house, erected by a Princeton volunteer fire 
organization named after him. 

A few yards further on, just before 
Mercer Manor (estate of Mr. H. B. Ows- 
ley) is reached a pyramid of shot by the 
roadside is intended to mark the place 
where Mercer fell but the actual spot was 
considerably further dovv^n the road, and 
nearer the Hale house. 

The land on the left of the road is part 
of "Drumthwacket." Nearly opposite the 
spot now reached is the monument to Brit- 
ish and American soldiers, already men- 



38 Guide to Princeton 

tioned. The turnpike now passes the end of 
Lover's Lane on the left. On the right this 
becomes Olden Lane leading past Maple 
Hill Farm, the residence of Mr. Walter 
C. Olden and part of the original William 
Olden tract, bought in 1696 and embrac- 
ing the land from Stony Brook to the post- 
road. At the corner of the turnpike and 
Olden Lane is Peep-o'-Day, home of the 
late Lawrence Hutton, the well known dra- 
matic critic and author, who died here in 
1904. 

The borough is now entered and the turn- 
pike becomes Mercer Street. On the left 
are the woods at the rear of ''Guernsey 
Hall" (entrance marked by the columns and 
architrave of the original Hall of the Clio- 
sophic Society on the College campus, re- 
moved to this site when the present marble 
hall of the Society was erected in 1893.) 
The depression in the road is the end of the 
ravine across which the last phase of the 
Battle of Princeton was fought. A British 
regiment left in Nassau Hall formed on 
the slope of the ravine and endeavored to 
check the oncoming Americans, but were 



The Toivn 39 

driven back to Nassau Hall over land which 
now forms the University Golf Links, the 
grounds of the Princeton Theological Sem- 
inary, and the northwestern part of the Uni- 
versity campus. 

A glimpse of the Graduate College, with 
the Cleveland Tower and the Procter Me- 
morial Hall, is caught across the fields to the 
right. 

Continuing up Mercer Street, the main 
campus of the Princeton Theological Semi- 
nary is reached on the right. 

The Princeton Theological Seminary 
is a separate institution from the University, 
having no corporate relation whatever with 
the University. It is the oldest and also the 
largest Presbyterian seminary in the coun- 
try. An agreement was reached in 181 1 
by a joint committee representing the col- 
lege and the General Assembly which led 
to the location of the Seminary at Prince- 
ton. In 1812 the first professor was elected 
(the Rev. Dr. Archibald Alexander) and in 
1813 the Rev. Dr. Samuel Miller was added. 
Lectures and recitations were held in the 
professors' houses. In 1S15 the cornerstone 



40 Guide to Princeton 

of Alexander Hall (or Old Seminary), 
the dormitory facing Mercer Street, was laid 
and in 1817 the building was occupied. It 
has the distinction of being the first build- 
ing erected by the Presbyterian Church in 
the United States for seminary purposes. 
Originally containing lecture room, refec- 
tory, oratory, library, and student apart- 
ments, it is now used solely as a dormitory. 

North of Alexander Hall is Miller 
Chapel, built in 1833, named after Dr. 
Samuel Miller, and containing several not- 
able memorials to early professors. 

The Gymnasium was erected in 1847 as 
a refectory. 

Hodge Hall, a dormitory in honor of 
Dr. Charles Hodge, was erected in 1893 
from a bequest of Mrs. Robert L. Stuart. 

Brown Hall is a third dormitory, its cor- 
ner stone being laid in 1S64 by the Mod- 
erator of the General Assembly. The build- 
ing was a gift of Mrs. Isabella Brown of 
Baltimore. 

Stuart Hall, named in honor of Messrs. 
Robert L. and Alexander Stuart of New 
York, contains the seminary lecture and 



The Town 41 

class rooms, besides two large auditoriums. 
It was erected in 1876. 

The Reference and Lenox Libraries, 
both gifts of the Mr. James Lenox of New 
York, were erected in 1843 and 1879 re- 
spectively. The two buildings occupy the 
lot between Mercer Street and Stockton 
Street. The main collections are located in 
the Lenox Library, the other building be- 
ing used as its name indicates. The main 
library is open seven hours in the day and 
three hours at night, while the reference li- 
brary is open every week day, eight hours in 
the daytime and three hours at night except 
Saturday night. The combined libraries 
contain over 106,000 volumes and 35,000 
pamphlets, besides other collections. 

In addition to the buildings named, there 
are eight houses on the Seminary campus, 
belonging to the Seminary and used as pro- 
fessors' residences. The brick house north 
of Miller Chapel was occupied first by Dr. 
Archibald Alexander and subsequently by 
Dr. Charles Hodge. The corresponding 
house at the other end of Alexander Hall 
was occupied by Dr. Samuel Miller, on 



42 Guide to Princeton 

leaving his private residence, now the Nas- 
sau Club. 

Opposite Trinity Church, the street to 
the right, now Alexander Street, was for- 
merly called Canal Street and was one of 
the principal thoroughfares of Princeton, 
being the direct road to the canal (opened 
1834) and to the railroad station, when the 
main line of the railroad (opened 1839) 
was on the canal bank. In 1867 the rail- 
road was straightened, and at Princeton 
Junction a branch line three miles long con- 
nected it with Princeton. 

The stone building on the left, opposite 
the head of Alexander Street, on the land of 
Trinity Church, was built in 1847 for the 
Law School of the college. On the discon- 
tinuance of the school the building became 
the office of the railroad company (owners 
of the line on the canal) and in 1871 after 
the lease to the Pennsylvania Railroad, it 
passed into private owenrship and has since 
been known as Ivy Hall. It now belongs 
to Trinity Church. 

A little further east on the right hand side 
of Mercer Street, the house with high 



The Tozvn 43 

porch columns is historic although not con- 
nected with Princeton. It was the Sheldon 
home at Northampton, Mass., and was 
brought to Princeton piece by piece in 1868 
by the Rev. Dr. George Sheldon. 

Next is the Nassau Club. On this site 
Jonathan Dickinson Sergeant, a Princeton 
lawyer and patriot, had built a handsome 
residence which was burned to the ground 
by the Hessians in 1776 during the absence 
of Mr. Sergeant in Congress. The property 
came into possession of Mr. Sergeant's 
son-in-law, the Rev. Dr. Samuel Miller of 
the Theological Seminary, who erected 
(about 1813-14) the present building which 
was enlarged by the Club in 191 1. The 
walls are of stone and more than a foot 
thick; the old fireplaces, panelled mantel- 
pieces and other woodwork are still in 
place; so also is the Dutch oven under the 
rear porch. Before Mercer Street was 
opened in 1807 the gardens and orchards of 
this property extended north to Stockton 
Street (towards which it will be noticed the 
house faces), south to Dickinson Street, 
east to what is now University Place, and 



44 Guide to Princeton 

west to Alexander Street. On this property 
General Winfield Scott encamped with his 
troops in 1814 on their way to the front. 

The union of Stockton and Mercer Streets 
has now been reached again and the tour 
of the 'Triangle'' completed. At a point 
between the little park and the corner of 
Bayard Lane, von Donop, the Hessian com- 
mander at Princeton in December 1776, 
had set up earthworks as a defence from 
possible attack on the post road. A Brit- 
ish cannon mounted on one of these earth- 
works was fired, (according to one tradition, 
by Mary Hays, the "Mollie Pitcher" of 
Monmouth), at the British columns under 
Cornwallis approaching from Trenton and 
Stony Brook in pursuit of Washington after 
the Battle of Princeton. This temporarily 
checked the advance, necessitating recon- 
naissance on the part of the British only to 
discover that Washington had no intention 
of defending Princeton, but was hastening 
away toward Kingston. In spite of discre- 
pancy in the records there is reason to be- 
lieve that the Big Cannon on the University 
campus was the gun here mentioned. 



The Town 45 

Continuing along Nassau Street to With- 
erspoon Street, the large half-timbered 
building on the left at Baker Street is 
Upper Pyne, a University dormitory. The 
elaborate carving is interesting. The text 
**Nisi Dominus Frustra" (Unless the Lord 
build the house they labor in vain) is carved 
on the main first floor beam, and on the face 
of the sundial is the motto: "Vulnerant 
Omnes : Ultima Necat" (Each hour injures ; 
the last one slays). On the corner opposite 
the First National Bank is Lower Pyne, an- 
other University dormitory of similar style. 
Turning down Witherspoon Street just be- 
fore reaching the Cemetery the Wiggins 
House is passed on the right. This was 
built by Dr. Thomas Wiggins, an i8th cen- 
tury Princeton physician and treasurer of 
the college, on what was then his farm of 
some twenty acres. Dr. Wiggins was a mem- 
ber of the local Committee of Correspon- 
dence in 1775 and as such endorsed the dis- 
patch carried by a rider through Princeton 
before dawn on April 23, bringing to the 
Continental Congress at Philadelphia the 
news of Lexington and Concord. The "Wig- 



46 Guide to Princeton 

gins House" was for some time the parson- 
age of the First Presbyterian Church. 

The Princeton Cemetery has been ex- 
travagantly called the ''Westminster of 
America." It contains, however, (in the 
Presidents' Lot) the graves of all the de- 
ceased presidents of Princeton University, 
except Presidents Dickinson and Finley, and 
including Jonathan Edwards, John Wither- 
spoon and James McCosh. Elsewhere are 
the graves of an ex-President of the United 
States (Cleveland), and a Vice-President 
of the United States (Burr), Justices of the 
Supreme Court and of New Jersey, mem- 
bers of the Colonial Assembly and Council, 
members of the Continental Congress and of 
the New Jersey Provincial Congress, sev- 
eral officers of the Revolutionary Army and 
of the United States Army and Navy, a 
Signer of the Declaration of Independence 
(Witherspoon), a Governor of New Jersey, 
members of the United States Senate and 
House of Representatives, and several of 
the most famous theologians in American 
Presbyterian history. 

Following Witherspoon Street about a 



The Tozvn 47 

mile from Princeton and taking the left 
fork of the road (the Blawenburg road) we 
reach Tusculum, the country residence of 
President Witherspoon, built in 1773 (see 
date carved in the stone under the eaves). 
The house was the headquarters of the of- 
ficers of the 40th British regiment in De- 
cember 1776. The live-stock was seized, 
but the house and contents were not much 
damaged. Washington was not an infre- 
quent visitor here and the Dutch Minister, 
Van Berckel, made it his headquarters in 
'^7^Z> when he came to Princeton to receive 
audience from Congress. The frame addi- 
tion to the house is modern but the structure 
itself has been admirably preserved and is 
an excellent example of late colonial con- 
struction. Tradition claims that the ma- 
hogany doors were imported from England. 
The interior of the house is interesting. 
Dr. Witherspoon's study was a small room 
upstairs. 'Tusculum" is now the residence 
of Dr. M. W. Pardoe of Princeton. 

Returning to the corner of Witherspoon 
and Nassau Streets and following the latter 
east, on the northwest corner of Nassau 



48 Guide to Princeton 

Street and Vandeventer Avenue is the 
Bainbridge House (now the Public Li- 
brary). Built in the i8th century it belonged 
for over a hundred years to a branch of the 
Stockton family. It acquired its present 
name as the birthplace of Commodore Wil- 
liam Bainbridge of the United States Navy, 
who was born in 1774, the son of Dr. Ab- 
salom Bainbridge, a Princeton physician, 
and who became the celebrated commander 
of the "Constitution" (''Old Ironsides"). 

The Beatty House (No. 19 Vandeventer 
Avenue), the residence of Mr. Oliver H. 
Hubbard, is historic. As the residence of 
Colonel Erkuries Beatty, of the Revolution- 
ary Army, it stood formerly on the south 
side of Nassau Street opposite the Bain- 
bridge House from which it was removed 
about 1875. Colonel Beatty was one of 
Lafayette's aides at Yorktown, and it is 
said that Lafayette spent the night in this 
house in July 1825 on his second visit to 
Princeton, during his triumphal tour of 
the country. It was occupied in the middle 
of the 19th century by a girls' school of 
more than local reputation. On the corner 



The Town 49 

of Vandeventer Avenue opposite the Bain- 
bridge House is the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, erected in 1907 in place of the 
edifice built in 1847. 

Across Nassau Street in front of the 
Chemical Laboratory is one of the stone 
monuments erected to identify the route 
taken by Washington to Morristown after 
the Battle of Princeton. 

A block further east is St. Paul's Cath- 
olic Church, of which the organization 
dates from 1850, the church and parish 
buildings being, however, considerable later. 

At the corner of Harrison Street (one of 
the oldest streets in Princeton, appearing 
on all the early maps of the village, and 
leading directly to Scudder's or the Aque- 
duct Mills) was the suburb Queenston, 
locally known as "Jug Town," on account of 
a prosperous pottery manufactory formerly 
located there, but now become a part of the 
borough of Princeton. The locality had a 
period of great activity, with a hotel (cor- 
ner of Nassau and Harrison Streets), a 
chapel (on Harrison Street), a school, etc., 
of its own. The long low rambling Red 



50 Guide to Princeton 

House on the left of Nassau Street just 
before reaching Oueenston, on Evelyn Place, 
was the site of Evelyn College for Wo- 
men, which had a brief career in the early 
nineties. The property has now been cut 
up into building lots. 

The large house with the white porch- 
columns, on the south side of the street just 
after passing Queenston, was the residence 
of the late President McCosh, built by him 
on Prospect Avenue, and moved to the pres- 
ent site after his death. 

On the north side of the street, just be- 
yond the borough line (Snowden Lane) is 
the well known Princeton Preparatory 
School for boys, established in 1873. 

Continuing along the road to Kingston, on 
the south side is a fine old pre-revolution- 
ary house, Castle Howard, one of the old- 
est estates in Princeton, having originally 
been the plantation of a Dr. Greenland be- 
fore William Penn conveyed land to 
Stockton and others in 1696 at the other end 
of the village. The present name dates 
from an eighteenth century owner, Captain 
Howard, of the British Army, but who at the 



The Town 51 

time of his death in 1776 was a strong sym- 
pathizer with the colonists. It is said that 
he painted over his mantel the warning 
'*No Tory talk here," which remained visi- 
ble many years later. "Castle Howard" is 
now the residence of Mr. T. A. C. Baker. 
The scene of one of Dr. van Dyke's stories 
is laid here. 

At Kingston the road to the left leads to 
Rocky Hill where should be visited Rock- 
ingham, occupied by General Washington 
in the summer of 1783 as his headquarters 
during the session of Congress at Princeton. 
The property is now owned and maintained 
by The Washington Headquarters Associa- 
tion of Rocky Hill and is full of interesting 
relics chiefly relating to Washington. It is 
open to the public on payment of a fee of 25 
cents. In the ''Blue Room" at "Rocking- 
ham," Washington wrote in October 1783 
his "Farewell Orders" to the American 
Army. The property was rented for his 
occupancy from the widow of Judge John 
Berrien of Princeton, a trustee of the col- 
lege. It passed from her into various hands 
until it finally became the tenement of Ital- 



52 Guide to Princeton 

ian quarrymen. It was then recovered 
through the patriotic energy of Miss Kate 
E. McFarlane of Rocky Hill and the gen- 
erosity of Mrs. Josephine Thomson Swann 
of Princeton, the donor of Thomson Hall, 
already noticed. In spite of the general de- 
lapidation of the building during its use 
as a tenement, the Italian occupants kept 
the Blue Room closed and in perfect con- 
dition, treating it as a sanctuary in memory 
of its historic association with Washington. 
The house was built in 1734 and in 1783 the 
farm consisted of over 300 acres. 

During Washington's occupancy, "Rock- 
ingham' 'became a rendezvous for visitors. 
Among these, Thomas Paine was a specially 
invited guest. On the Millstone River at 
the foot of Rocky Hill, Paine and Washing- 
ton tested the local tradition that the river 
could be set on fire, by stirring up the mud 
of the bottom and lighting the marsh gas 
thus released. One of the most important 
state dinners given by Washington while at 
"Rockingham" was in honor of the Dutch 
Minister Van Berckel and the members of 
Congress. During Washington's stay, his 



The Town 53 

famous bodyguard encamped on the lawn 
in front of the house. 

The Aqueduct Mills on the Millstone 
(via Harrison Street and across Lake Car- 
negie) were located at the union of Stony 
Brook and the Millstone. In the Revolution 
it was known as Scudder's Mills, being 
owned by Colonel Nathaniel Scudder of the 
American Army. British troops were quar- 
tered at the mills during the occupation of 
Princeton by the British in 1776. The prop- 
erty was destroyed in December of that 
year, but at once rebuilt. 

On the south side of Lake Carnegie is 
Saint Joseph's College, the preparatory de- 
partment of Saint Vincent's Seminary at 
Germantown. These two institutions edu- 
cate young men for the Roman Catholic 
priesthood in the religious community called 
Congregation of the Mission, founded by 
Saint Vincent de Paul in 161 7 in Paris, and 
introduced into the United States in 181 7. 

On this side of the Lake is also the De- 
partment of Animal Pathology of the 
Rockefeller Institute for Medical Re- 
search. Here, in addition to the research 



54 Guide to Princeton 

work of this Department carried on in the 
laboratory building, serum horses and other 
animals of the Institute are cared for in spe- 
cially designed buildings, and may be kept 
isolated for the study of infectious diseases, 
the prevention of which constitutes the pur- 
pose of the Foundation. 

In an additional building, erected in 191 7, 
the production of curative sera was carried 
on to meet the urgent requirements of the 
war. 

The village of Lawrenceville, five miles 
from Princeton on the road to Trenton 
(either of the trolley lines or by Stockton 
Street and its continuation) was settled at 
about the same time as Princeton, its orig- 
inal name being Maidenhead. Being on the 
postroad to Trenton and Philadelphia its 
name appears frequently in the records. 

It is the seat of Lawrenceville School 
whose history runs back to 1810. The 
School is planned on the ''house system" by 
which the boys live in masters' houses of 
which there are twelve or more. The mem- 
bers of the Fifth or highest form live in a 
dormitory known as "Upper House" and in 



The Toivn 5^ 

preparation for their university life have at 
least one year of wider personal liberty 
and responsibility than is possible in the 
masters' houses. To see the grounds and 
admirably complete equipment of the school, 
visitors should ask for guides at the Head- 
master's House. 



S6 Guide to Princeton 



Walks 

1. Stockton Street, to Elm Street, to the 
Rosedale Road, to the two bridges, along 
right bank of Stony Brook downstream to 
site of Bruere's mill at the bridge, back by 
the old postroad. About 4 miles. 

2. Elm Road on east side of Brokaw 
Field through Potter's Woods to Lake 
Carnegie, along the shore of the Lake to 
Washington Road and thence to McCosh 
Walk and the campus. About 2 miles. 

3. Bayard Lane to Pretty Brook road 
and back by Province Line Road. Four 
miles. 

4. Bayard Lane or Elm Street to Cedar 
Grove and back by Blawenburg Road. Five 
miles. 

5. Nassau Street to Kingston, crossing 
head of lake Carnegie, following road along 
the lakeside to Washington Road extension 
back to Princeton. Six miles. 



The University S7 



The University 

Founded as the College of New Jersey 
(charter granted October 22, 1746, by Acting 
Governor John Hamilton), the college was 
opened at Elizabeth, N. J., in the spring 
of 1747. It owes its origin to the energy 
and persistence of members of the Synod of 
New York. On securing a charter they as- 
sociated with themselves the leaders of the 
famous Log College at Neshaminy (founded 
in 1726) which had recently been discon- 
tinued. On the death of the first presi- 
dent, Jonathan Dickinson, the college was 
moved to Newark, N. J., where in Novem- 
ber 1748 the first Commencement was held. 
A new charter was granted by Governor 
Jonathan Belcher in the same year. Prop- 
erty was acquired at Princeton in 1753 and 
the corner-stone of the first building, Nas- 
sau Hall, was laid in September 1754. The 
College was moved to Princeton in Novem- 



58 Guide to Princeton 

ber 1756. The title 'Trinceton University" 
was assumed in October 1896 at the Sesqui- 
cennial Celebration of the founding. The 
presidents of Princeton have been (i) 
Jonathan Dickinson, 1747- 1747, (2) Aaron 
Burr, 1748-1757, (3) Jonathan Edwards, 
1757-1758, (4) Samuel Davies, 1759-1761, 
(5) Samuel Finley, 1 761 -1766, (6) John 
Witherspoon, 1768- 1794, (7) Samuel Stan- 
hope Smith, 1795- 1 81 2, (8) Ashbel Green, 
1812-1822, (9) James Carnahan, 1823-1854, 
(10) John Maclean, 1854-1868, (11) James 
McCosh, 1868-1888, (12) Francis Landey 
Patton, 1 888- 1902, (13) Woodrow Wilson, 
1902-1910, (14) John Grier Hibben, 1912 
to date. 

The seal of the University is a shield 
resting upon a circle; in the upper part of 
the shield an open Bible with Latin char- 
acters signifying the Old and New Testa- 
ments; in the lower part, a chevron denot- 
ing the rafters of a building; between the 
sides of the shield and circle, the motto 
"Dei sub numine viget" ; on the outside of 
the circle the words "Sigillum Universitatis 
Princetoniensis." The heraldic description of 



The University 59 

the shield is : Or, a chevron sable ; on a 
chief of the second an open book proper 
with the words Vet Nov Testamentum. The 
official colors of the University are Orange 
and Black. This seal was adopted October 
22, 1896, when the name of the college was 
changed to Princeton University. It was 
taken in part from the old seal. 

Campus and Buildings 

The campus originally was a four and a 
half acre lot on the highroad, given by 
Nathaniel FitzRandolph, a resident of the 
village (see tablet in Holder Hall arch). 
It now comprises over eight hundred acres 
including land held in the interest of the 
University, with fifty-six buildings devoted 
to instructional, laboratory, and dormitory 
purposes, and over fifty others used for 
clubs, athletics, and various university pur- 
poses. 

Nassau Hall. Erected in 1754- 1756 
on the land given by Mr. Fitz Randolph and 
named in honor of William of Nassau, 
(Prince of Orange, William III of England) 
as "champion of British liberties," the build- 



6o Guide to Princeton 

ing was planned to contain the college refec- 
tory, recitation rooms, chapel, library, and 
students' apartments. Excepting the presi- 
dent's house (see Dean of the Faculty's 
house) certain out-buildings (fire engine 
shed, kitchen, steward's house, etc.) it was 
until the beginning of the 19th century the 
only building on the campus. Here all of 
Princeton's i8th century students roomed. 
The green in front of it has been the scene 
of several historic happenings. In the sum- 
mer of 1770 the students burned here, at 
the hands of the public hangman, the letter 
of the New York merchants breaking the 
Non-Importation Agreement. In January 
1774 here took place the Princeton Tea 
Party when a bonfire was made of the en- 
tire college supply of tea, with an eftigy of 
the unpopular Governor Hutchinson of 
Massachusetts in the center, a canister of 
tea about his neck. On July 9, 1776, the 
Declaration of Independence was read here, 
salutes fired, and the building was illumi- 
nated. The surrender of Cornwallis at 
Yorktown in 1781 and the announcement of 
the cessation of hostilities in April 1783 



The University 6i 

were duly celebrated on the front campus; 
and here an interesting ceremony took 
place in September 1824 when the Marquis 
of Lafayette revisited Princeton after forty- 
nine years, and was received by the college 
and town. Recent memorable scenes on the 
steps of Nassau Hall have been the review 
of the torchlight procession of alumni on 
October 22, 1896, by the President of the 
United States (Cleveland) at the Sesqui- 
centennial Celebration of the founding; the 
conferring of honorary degrees on the Pres- 
ident of the United States (Taft) and the 
Chief Justice (White) at the inauguration 
of President Hibben in 1912; and the con- 
ferring of honorary degrees at Commence- 
ment in 19 1 7 on the Secretary of State 
(Lansing) and the Ambassadors of the 
Allies. 

The front campus is the scene of ''senior 
singing" on spring evenings (from about 
7.30 to 8.30) the seniors occupying the steps 
and the audience grouping in a semicircle 
under the trees. The tablets set in the walls 
of Nassau Hall mark the ivy planted at 
Commencement by graduating classes. The 



62 Guide to Princeton 

earliest stone is that of the Class of 1870. 
The ivy thus grown had virtually covered 
the entire face of the building but was win- 
ter-killed in 1917-1918. The glacial boulder 
fragment lying beside the steps is from Neu- 
chatel, Switzerland, the birthplace of Pro- 
fessor Arnold Guyot of Princeton, the re- 
maining portion of the boulder being used 
in the tablet to his memory in Marquand 
Chapel. 

The bronze tigers on the steps, modelled 
by A. P. Proctor, are the gift of the Class 
of 1879. The tablet set in the front of the 
steps records a significant passage in the 
speech of the Chief Justice at the inaugura- 
tion of President Hibben. On one side of 
the doorway is a bronze tablet setting forth 
the successive stages in the corporate devel- 
opment of the University; on the other, a 
bronze tablet erected by the New Jersey 
Chapter of the Sons of the Revolution epi- 
tomizing the history of Nassau Hall. In the 
vestibule is a bronze tablet erected by the 
New Jersey Chapter of the Society of the 
Colonial Dames of America in memory of 
the first presidents and charter trustees of 



The University 6^, 

the college. Opposite are a heroic bronze 
bas-relief of Elias Boudinot (by W. O. 
Partridge) trustee of Princeton, and Pres- 
ident of the Continental Congress at the time 
of its session in this building, and one of 
John Witherspoon, Signer of the Declara- 
tion of Independence, and President of 
Princeton University during the Revolution- 
ary period. The central entrance hall or 
atrium is to be remodelled and dedicated as 
a Memorial Hall to Princetonians who gave 
up their lives in the War, and will contain 
the memorial tablets in their honor. The 
record of Princeton men in service is at 
present temporarily posted on the walls. 

Military occupation during the Revolu- 
tion completely ruined the interior of Nas- 
sau Hall and restorations were not com- 
pleted for several years after the war. The 
interior was destroyed by fire in 1802 and 
again in 1855, but in each case the walls 
remained. Until the restoration after the 
fire of 1855 there were three entrances, one 
on each side of the central entrance with 
corresponding exits in the rear. The tur- 
rets at the ends of the building containing 



64 Guide to Princeton 

the stone staircases, date from the restora- 
tion of 1855, as does the high cupola. The 
bell rings the curfew every night during the 
term time, a college rule dating from the be- 
ginning of the occupancy of Nassau Hall 
and broken only during the existence of 
the Student Army Training Corps in the 
autumn of 19 18, when virtually the whole 
student body was under military or naval 
jurisdiction. The clock in the cupola is the 
gift of the Class of i860. 

Before 1855 corridors ran through the en- 
tire length of the building; the prayer-hall 
or chapel was smaller; and the interior of 
the east end has been greatly altered to pro- 
vide space for the offices of administration ; 
but the interior of the west end has pre- 
served closely the original arrangement and 
appearance. 

During the Revolution the building was 
occupied as barracks and hospital by British 
and American troops in turn. Evacuated 
by the college in November 1776 and held 
as a British post until the Battle of Prince- 
ton (Jan. 3, 1777), it was recaptured by 
Washington at the close of the Battle, 



The University 65 

Alexander Hamilton's battery firing the 
shots that led to the surrender of the gar- 
rison. Abandoned later in the day by 
Washington, it was re-occupied for a few 
hours by Cornwallis who was succeeded by 
American troops, the latter remaining until 
almost the end of the war. 

The first State legislature of New Jersey 
met in Nassau Hall in 1776, adopted the 
first State constitution, inaugurated the first 
governor of the State and adopted the State 
seal. Here in the college library room over 
the main entrance, the Continental Congress 
sat during the summer and autumn of 1783 
at ordinary sessions, adjourning to the 
prayer-hall on the main floor on special oc- 
casions. 

The prayer-hall or chapel (now the Fac- 
ulty Room) is historic. Here in former 
times were held the daybreak and vesper 
chapel services at which attendance was 
compulsory. George Whitefield, the fa- 
mous 1 8th century evangelist, once preached 
to the college in this hall at 5 o'clock in the 
morning; the death of George H was com- 
memorated here with solemn exercises; the 



66 Guide to Princeton 

funeral services of Presidents Aaron Burr, 
Samuel Davies, Jonathan Edwards and John 
Witherspoon, and of Richard Stockton, an- 
other Princeton Signer of the Declaration 
of Independence, and of Colonel Aaron 
Burr, former Vice-President of the United 
States, took place in this room ; here too the 
Continental Congress received General 
Washington in a public audience in August 
1783 and tendered to him the thanks of the 
nation for his services during the Revolu- 
tionary War; later in the summer Con- 
gress also received in this room Peter van 
Berckel, the Minister Plenipotentiary from 
the Netherlands, the first foreign minister 
accredited to the United States after in- 
dependence had been acknowledged ; and on 
the same day the first authentic news of 
the signing of the Definitive Treaty of Peace 
was delivered to Congress by a special cour- 
ier from Europe. In later years the room 
was first the library and then the college 
museum. Ex- President Cleveland, a trus- 
tee of Princeton, delivered the address at 
the re-opening (in 1906) of the hall as the 
Faculty Room in which the formal meetings 



The University 6y 

of the Faculty take place. The remodelling 
and furnishings were carried out in mem- 
ory of Nathaniel Fitz Randolph by his de- 
scendants. 

The portraits in the Faculty Room are 
chiefly those of the fourteen presidents and 
of early trustees and graduates of the Uni- 
versity. The portraits of President Mc- 
Cosh and President Patton are by John W. 
Alexander. The portrait of William of 
Orange, Prince of Nassau, for whom the 
building was named, is a copy of the portrait 
at the Hague. That of President Wilson is 
by Frederick Yates. The most interesting 
picture is that of George Washington by 
Charles Willson Peale, the sittings for which 
were given at Rocky Hill, near Princeton, 
while Washington was in Headquarters 
there in 1783. It was painted by order of 
the Board of Trustees and paid for with 
money which Washington had presented to 
the college. The frame originally held a 
portrait of George H which was shot away 
during the Battle of Princeton. In the back- 
ground is a view of the battle and of Nas- 
sau Hall ; in the foreground is General Hugh 



68 Guide to Princeton 

Mercer who died of wounds received in the 
action. 

Nassau Hall is now used almost entirely 
for administrative purposes, containing the 
offices of the President, the Secretary, the 
Registrar, the Dean of the Graduate School, 
the Dean of the College, and the private 
offices of members of the Faculty. On the 
top floor at the west end is the Psychological 
Laboratory. 

The Dean's House, official residence of 
the Dean of the Faculty, northwest of Nas- 
sau Hall and facing Nassau Street, is 
contemporary with Nassau Hall having been 
built as the president's house and until 
1879 so occupied by all presidents of the 
University except Dickinson. Presidents 
Aaron Burr, Samuel Davies and Jonathan 
Edwards died in this house. In his diary 
Mr. John Adams speaks of visiting Presi- 
dent Withers poon here in 1774. On one of 
the study windows is an inscription scratched 
on the glass in 1804. The two giant syca- 
mores at the entrance gate are commonly 
associated with the repeal of the Stamp 
Act (1766) having been planted (or at least 



The University 69 

ordered to be planted) the year before the 
repeal. The campus gate and railing at this 
point was called "Lazy Corner" in former 
times, being a popular undergraduate loafing 
place. 

South of the Dean's House and west of 
Nassau Hall is Stanhope Hall, the survi- 
vor of two buildings built in 1803- 1804, 
for recitation, library, and laboratory pur- 
poses, the other being in a corresponding 
position at the east end of Nassau Hall on 
the site occupied since 1873 by the Chan- 
cellor Green Library. Stanhope Hall is 
named after President S. Stanhope Smith 
and now contains the offices of the Treas- 
urer and of the Secretary of Business Ad- 
ministration. The corresponding building, 
formerly at the other end of Nassau Hall 
and now removed, contained in its basement 
the refectory and was at first called the 
Refectory. Here in the stone vaulted din- 
ing hall Lafayette was entertained at a 
breakfast served in his honor by the town 
and the college when he revisited Princeton 
in 1824. Subsequently the building became 
known as Philosophical Hall because the 



70 Guide to Princeton 

laboratory of the department of Natural 
Philosophy or Physics was here. Here 
Professor Joseph, Henry carried on his 
experiments, especially in telegraphy, and 
from this laboratory as early as 1836 sent 
messages over the wire to his home on the 
opposite side of the campus, these being 
the first telegraphic messages ever sent. 
This fact was the keynote of the college 
celebration of the laying of the Atlantic 
cable in 1858. 

The dormitory south of Stanhope Hall is 
Reunion Hall erected in 1870 and named 
to commemorate the reunion of the Old and 
New Schools of the Presbyterian Church. 

Passing between Stanhope Hall and Re- 
union the main entrance to Alexander 
Hall is reached. This auditorium (W. A. 
Potter, architect) erected in 1892 by Mrs. 
Harriet Crocker (Charles B.) Alexander, 
seats about 1500 and is used for commence- 
ment exercises, public lectures, concerts and 
other large university gatherings. The mo- 
saic panels on the wall behind the rostrum, 
representing Homer surrounded by the he- 
roes and heroines of Homeric Story, were 



The University yi 

designed by J. A. Holzer. The high relief 
tablet to the right of the rostrum is in mem- 
ory of Henry M. Alexander, Class of 1840, 
a trustee of Princeton from 1863 to 1899. 
The sculptures on the south front of the 
building are by J. Massey Rhind and con- 
sist of the seated figure of Learning, on one 
side of which are figures of Architecture, 
Sculpture, Painting, Poetry, Music, and 
Belles Lettres, and on the other side Ora- 
tory, Theology, History, PEilosophy, and 
Ethics. The quotation ending the inscrip- 
tion is from Lucretius : ''There is no great- 
er joy than to hold high aloft the serene 
abodes well bulwarked by the learning of 
the wise." 

Between Alexander Hall and the street is 
the First Presbyterian Church mentioned 
elsewhere. 

Northwest of Alexander Hall are Holder 
and Madison Halls (Day and Klauder, 
architects), the Great Court of Holder being 
entered through the arch on the driveway 
leading from Alexander Hall. This is the 
approximate site of the i8th century pri- 
vate burial ground of the Fitz Randolph 



72 Guide to Princeton 

family, and behind the tablet set in the 
arch are gathered the few bones found when 
the excavation for the dormitory was made. 
The tablet is in memory of Nathaniel Fitz 
Randolph, donor of the site of Nassau Hall. 
The Latin inscription records that ''He rests 
in our ground — ^^and yet his own." Crossing 
the Court, the Cloisters and especially the 
Holder Tower should be noticed. The 
the court is enclosed on three sides by the 
dormitory named Holder Hall and given 
by Mrs. Russell Sage, in memory of Chris- 
topher Holder, a Quaker ancestor (see tab- 
let with inscription by Dr. John DeWitt in 
arch under the tower). The cloisters form 
the fourth side of the court. Passing out 
under the tower into Nassau Street turn to 
the left. The escutcheons on the street 
front of the arch bear the arms of the orig- 
inal thirteen colonies. The group of build- 
ings now reached is Madison Hall, joined 
architecturally to Holder and containing the 
University Dining Halls, where the sopho- 
mores and freshmen and a number of upper- 
classmen take their meals. During the war 
period (1917-18) the Student Army Train- 



The University 73 

ing Corps, the Naval Training Unit and the 
School of Military Aeronautics all messed 
here. The portraits hanging in the Halls 
are of alumni and officers of the University. 
The kitchen is in a separate building in the 
center of the court enclosed by Madison 
Hall. The latter quadrangle extends to the 
corner of University Place and down this 
street to Hamilton Hall, a dormitory (Day 
and Klauder, architects). The interesting 
architectural effect of the low archway lead- 
ing into the small court between Hamilton 
and Madison should be noticed. The in- 
scription in the archway, by Dr. DeWitt, is 
in honor of the Acting Governor John Ham- 
ilton, grantor of the First Charter, for 
whom the building is named. 

Turning in to the left from University 
Place between Hamilton and the Halsted 
Observatory on the right, containing the 
great telescope, 30 feet long, of 23 inches 
aperture, and other astronomical accessories 
for advanced scientific work, Campbell 
Hall, also a dormitory (Cram, Goodhue, 
Ferguson, architects), is found on the right. 
The vista of three arches and the steps 



74 Guide to Princeton 

leading down from Nassau Street through 
Holder Court and piercing Campbell is in- 
teresting. 

Going through the arch of Campbell 
(named in honor of John I. Campbell, presi- 
dent of the Class of 1877, donors of the 
dormitory) Blair Hall, a dormitory, is 
seen directly in front, with the great tower 
and arch leading to a broad flight of 
steps. The arch contains tablets in memory 
of John Inslee Blair, Trustee of Princeton 
and donor of the building, and of Walter 
Cope and John Stewardson, architects of 
Blair and Little Halls and of the Gymna- 
sium, ''masters of their art and an uplifting 
influence in the development of architecture 
in America." This latter tablet was erected 
by the Philadelphia Chapter of the Ameri- 
can Institute of Architects. Until 1918 the 
railway station was located in the area at 
the foot of the Blair steps. 

Skirting Blair Hall on the right proceed 
to the short flight of steps between the end 
of Blair and the buttress wall of Wither- 
spoon Hall (dormitory built in 1877 in hon- 
or of President Witherspoon) on the left. 



The University 75 

Note the Tiger Gateway at the right of the 
steps. The latter lead to the court of Staf- 
ford Little Hall, dormitory built in 1899 
and 1901, named for Mr. Stafford Little of 
the Class of 1844, donor of the building, 
(Cope & Stewardson, architects), with Ed- 
wards and Albert B. Dod Halls, the for- 
mer, built in 1880, named after President 
Edwards and the latter (built in 1890, J. L. 
Faxon, architect) after Professor Albert B. 
Dod of the Class of 1822. 

Stafford Little Hall is connected archi- 
tecturally with the Gymnasium (built in 
1903, Cope and Stewardson, architects), the 
main entrance to which through the massive 
tower leads directly into the Trophy Room, 
and this on to the floor of the Gymnasium 
itself. The Trophy Room contains the ban- 
ners, footballs, baseballs, cups and medals of 
winning Princeton teams and individual ath- 
letes. The Gymnasium proper is 166 feet 
long by loi feet wide. The running track is 
twelve laps to the mile. Downstairs are 
dressing rooms, hot and cold shower baths, 
handball courts and a rowing room with ma- 
chines for indoor crew practice. The rooms 



76 Guide to Princeton 

opening from the entrance hall on the main 
floor are used by the offices of the Depart- 
ment of Physical Education and Hygiene 
and besides physical examination rooms, 
there are rooms for boxing, wrestling and 
fencing. 

In the adjoining Brokaw Memorial is 
the swimming tank, which can be reached 
also from the lower floor of the gymna- 
sium. The Brokaw Memorial is named in 
memory of Frederick Brokaw, Class of 
1892, who lost his life while trying to save a 
drowning girl (note tablet in the arch). 
Brokaw Field lies beyond and is a general 
athletic ground used by class teams. The 
Elm Drive skirting Brokaw Field leads 
through Potter's Woods down to the canal 
and was the direct road to college when the 
railway station was at the canal. 

East of the Gymnasium is David Brown 
Hall (J. L. Faxon, architect), a dormitory 
erected by Mrs. David Brown in 1891 in 
memory of her husband, and below this is 
the group of dormitories formed by Cuyler 
and Fatten, both dormitories, the former 
(Day and Klauder, architects) built in 19 12 



The University yy 

in memory of Cornelius C. Cuyler of the 
Class of 1879, 3. trustee and devoted alum- 
nus, and the latter (B. W. Morris, archi- 
tect) built in 1906 in honor of Ex-President 
Francis L. Patton. Several of the entries 
in Cuyler were given by the classes of 1881, 
1882 and 1891, and by individuals. The 
entries in Patton were given by the ten 
classes from 1892 to 1901 inclusive, these 
classes having entered college under Presi- 
dent Patton. Brown, Cuyler and Patton 
Halls were the barracks of the U. S. School 
of Military Aeronautics maintained at 
Princeton during the war. 

Turning to the left and reaching the lower 
end of Patton Hall, the University tennis 
courts are found on the left and right. Im- 
mediately below the tennis courts is Goldie 
Field, named after George Goldie, for many 
years Director of the Gymnasium. Beyond 
this lies Foe Field, named in memory of 
John Prentiss Poe of the Class of 1895, 
killed in action in September 191 5 while 
serving with the British Army in France. 
These playing fields are provided for the 
benefit of undergraduates not members of 



78 Guide to Princeton 

university teams. During the war Poe 
Field was the drill ground of the U. S. 
School of Military- Aeronautics. The han- 
gars erected for the "penguins" are now 
used by the Field Artillery Unit of the R. 
O. T. C. for part of its equipment. 

Passing the tennis courts we now reach 
Guyot Hall, erected in 1909 (Parrish and 
Schroeder, architects) the headquarters of 
the Natural Science departments of the Uni- 
versity. The building is named for Arnold 
Guyot, the eminent geographer and scien- 
tist who was a professor at Princeton from 
1854 to 1884 (see very interesting tablet 
erected in his memory in Marquand 
Chapel). The museums in Guyot Hall are 
open daily. The building has a serviceable 
floor space of about 85,000 square feet 
(two acres) and contains over a hundred 
rooms devoted to scientific work. During 
the great war the building was given over al- 
most entirely to the School of Military Aero- 
nautics, the collections were stored and the 
space was used for the lecture and experi- 
mental work of the ground school. The 
Vivarium with large concrete aquaria for 



The University 79 

sea and fresh water is in a separate nearby 
building. Adjoining are flying cages, run- 
ways, greenhouses, and a biological pond 
for studying animals under natural condi- 
tions. 

Passing on to Washington Road a view of 
Palmer Stadium (H. J. Hardenburgh, 
architect) across the road is obtained, pre- 
sented by Mr. Edgar Palmer, Class of 1903, 
in memory of his father, Stephen S. Palmer, 
the donor of Palmer Physical Laboratory, 
and for some years a Trustee of the Univer- 
sity. The Stadium holds over 42,000 seats 
and is used for the big football games and 
track meets. The former Olden farmhouse 
and homestead opposite the Stadium is now 
the Nurses' Home, for the Infirmary staff. 
The 19 II Football Team Field House 
across the driveway from the Stadium, pre- 
sented by Mr. Cyrus H. McCormick, Class 
of 1879, as a memorial to the team of 191 1, 
is used as a dressing room for the teams. 

Following Washington Road to the right 
and proceeding down the hill Lake Car- 
negie is reached, the gift of Mr. Andrew 
Carnegie, with the Class of 1887 Boat- 



8o Guide to Princeton 

house (P. Satterthwaite '93, architect) pre- 
sented by that Class. The lake and boat- 
house form the headquarters of the Univer- 
sity Rowing Association. The lake was 
formed by excavating and enlarging Stony 
Brook and the Millstone River which flowed 
through the lowland. It extends some three 
and three-quarters miles to Kingston. 

A pleasant walk along the wooded bank of 
the lake brings one to Broadmead (the first 
turn to the left) which after passing through 
a group of half-timbered houses occupied 
by members of the Faculty, and crossing 
Prospect Avenue, becomes Princeton Ave- 
nue and ends at Nassau Street. 

If this walk is not followed, return up 
Washington Road when the Isabella Mc- 
Cosh Infirmary will be passed just above 
Guyot Hall. This is the University hospital 
and is named after the wife of President 
McCosh. Above the Infirmary is the Pal- 
mer Physical Laboratory (H. J. Harden- 
burgh, architect), presented by Mr. Stephen 
S. Palmer, a Trustee of the University, and 
erected in 1908. The statues (by D. C. 
French) over the entrance are of Professor 



The University 8i 

Joseph Henry whose most conspicuous work 
in physics was done at Princeton, and of 
Benjamin FrankHn. This laboratory con- 
tains an area of about two acres on three 
floors for the work of instruction and re- 
search, and has an exceptionally complete 
equipment. Some of Professor Henry's ap- 
paratus may be seen in the Museum. 

Opposite the Palmer Laboratory the first 
house is the Princeton home of Jesse Lynch 
Williams of the Class of 1892, the well 
known author and playwright, next to which 
is the Terrace Club, one of the upperclass 
clubs of the University. 

Further on at the top of the hill and op- 
posite the end of Prospect Avenue is Sev- 
enty-Nine Hall (B. W. Morris, archi- 
tect) the only dormitory on this side of the 
campus. It was presented by the Class of 
1879 on the twenty-fifth anniversary of its 
graduation. The Bartholdi lions on the steps 
formerly stood on the steps of Nassau Hall, 
and were removed to Seventy-Nine when the 
Proctor Tigers were presented. The marble 
benches on the campus side of the arch are 
in memory of Charles McFee, Class of 1879. 



82 Guide to Princeton 

The monkey and tiger grotesques on Sev- 
enty-Nine are by Gutzon Borglum. 

Prospect Avenue which is at right an- 
gles to Seventy-Nine is the club street. On 
the left is the Working Observatory, used 
for the Department of Astronomy, but with 
the exception of this and a few private 
residences on the lower right hand side, the 
street contains only upperclass clubs. The 
list of these is : on the right. Campus, Tow- 
er, Cannon, Quadrangle, Ivy, Cottage, Cap 
and Gown, Charter, Key and Seal, Cloister 
Inn ; on the left, Gateway, Dial Lodge, Co- 
lonial, Tiger Inn, Elm. 

The Osborn Field House (gift of Pro- 
fessor Henry F. Osborn, Class of 1877) on 
the corner of Prospect Avenue and Olden 
Street is used as a training house for ath- 
letic teams. Behind it is the University 
Field where all baseball games and espe- 
cially the Yale Game at Commencement are 
played. The Ferris Thompson Gateway 
and Wall (McKim, Mead and \Miite, ar- 
chitects) on Prospect Avenue were pre- 
sented by Mr. Ferris Thompson, Class of 
1888. 



The University 83 

Proceeding along Olden Street turn up 
William Street (first to left) passing the 
Princeton University Press (founded in 
the interest of the University by Mr. Charles 
Scribner, Class of 1875 (Ernest Flagg, ar- 
chitect) and maintained as a printing and 
publishing plant. It was incorporated as 
an ''association not for pecuniary profit," 
and its affairs are directed by a council of 
which no one may be a member *'who is not 
a Trustee, Professor or Graduate of Prince- 
ton University." Crossing Washington 
Road at the top of William Street and going 
on to the campus, to the left will be seen the 
long line of McCosh Hall, erected in 1907 
(R. C. Gildersleeve, architect) and devoted 
entirely to lecture and recitation rooms and 
composing at present one side and part of 
another side of a contemplated quadrangle. 
The grotesques, gargoyles and other carving 
will repay examination. 

The Mather Sun Dial in the court of 
McCosh Hall, a replica of the famous Turn- 
bull Sun Dial constructed in 1551 at Corpus 
Christi College, Oxford, was presented to 
Princeton by Sir William Mather of Lon- 



84 Guide to Princeton 

don (Hon. LL.D. 1905) to "symbolize the 
connection not only between Oxford and 
Princeton, but between Great Britain and 
America." The unveiling and presentation 
in 1907 were made on behalf of the donor 
by the British Ambassador, now Viscount 
Bryce. The monument has twenty-four 
dials in all. The square block supported by 
the shaft bears the arms of Bishop Fox, 
founder of Corpus Christi, Bishop Oldham 
(three owls), the University of Oxford, and 
the Royal Arms. It carries nineteen dials, 
seven in the escutcheon on the west face and 
nine in that on the east. Under the escutch- 
eons are vertical dials reading the hours and 
also indicating the months. The dial on the 
south face will not read during the summer 
owing to the sun's greater altitude at Prince- 
ton, causing the shadow of the point to fall 
outside the limits of the dial; but the east 
and west dials will read all the year round. 
The north face in the Turnbull dial has 
been lost and the few ornamental lines re- 
maining have been reproduced in the Prince- 
ton replica. In the cornice above the es- 
cutcheons are four mottoes, one on each 



The University 85 

side. Above the cornice is a pyramidal block 
containing four dials (north and south, dials 
with ornamental angular gnomons; east, 
heart-shaped hollowed dial, the shadow be- 
ing thrown by a tongue of stone ; west, semi- 
spherical hollowed dial, the gnomon being a 
rod). The frustrum supports a globe rep- 
resenting the earth on which stands a Peli- 
can, the symbol of Corpus Christi (the peli- 
can in legend piercing its own breast to 
feed the young with its blood). The stone 
is cut away leaving six bands (equatorial, 
north polar, south polar, zodiacal, and two 
others), raised above the solid core. The 
shaft bears one dial on the south side of its 
upper part, with an angular gnomon, the 
shadow telling the hour and its extremity the 
month. 

The tablets on the shaft have no connec- 
tion with the dialling, that under the dial on 
the shaft being a perpetual calendar and 
giving the length of the year of various 
planets, and also certain lunar data. 

Princeton undergraduate custom permits 
only seniors to sit on the base of the dial. 

Passing through the arch in the corner of 



86 Guide to Princeton 

the court (note tablet in memory of Hunt- 
ington Wolcott Jackson, of the Class of 
1863, erected by the Loyal Legion) we enter 
McCosh Walk, named also for the late 
President McCosh. The Walk forms part 
of the axis dividing the older northern por- 
tion of the campus from the newer southern 
part. Its continuation west leads directly to 
the Tiger Gateway between Blair and Little 
Halls, already mentioned. At the end of 
McCosh Walk is Murray-Dodge Hall, the 
college Y. M. C. A. This building, the older 
portion of which, containing the auditorium, 
was erected in 1879 from a bequest of Ham- 
ilton Murray, Class of 1872, while the new- 
er portion contains the lounge, various class 
and office rooms and apartments of the resi- 
dent secretary, was the gift of William E. 
Dodge and his son Cleveland H. Dodge, 
Class of 1879, in memory of W. Earl Dodge 
of the same class. It is the headquarters 
of the Philadelphian Society whose history 
dates back to the first quarter of the 19th 
century. From this society have grown the 
Intercollegiate Y. M. C. A., The Student 
Volunteer Movement, and the World's 



The University 87 

Christian Students' Federation. The sta- 
tue of the Christian Athlete facing 
Murray-Dodge commemorates the founding 
of the movement, and is in particular mem- 
ory of WilUam Earl Dodge, Jr., Class of 
1879 (note the inscriptions). To the left 
and rear of Murray-Dodge is the Art Mu- 
seum, architecturally unfinished. The Mu- 
seum is the headquarters of the Art Depart- 
ment of the University and besides a large 
library of books, photographs and slides il- 
lustrating the history of art, contains several 
collections of value and interest, especially 
the very representative Trumbull-Prime and 
the Livingston Collections of pottery, the 
Morse Collection of Japanese natsukes, and 
the Kienbusch Collection of Japanese sword 
hilts. Notice also the portrait of Colonel 
Aaron Burr, Class of 1772, believed to be 
by Gilbert Stuart; a replica of the bronze 
bust of Lincoln by L. W. Volk ; the original 
plaster cast of the bronze statue of Richard 
Stockton, Class of 1748, Signer of the Dec- 
laration, by H. K. Brown in the Capitol at 
Washington, and a cast of the bronze relief 
of Jonathan Edwards, at Northampton, 



88 Guide to Princeton 

Mass. ; and the important squeezes and other 
results of the Princeton Expeditions to Sy- 
ria, besides collections of Greek and Roman 
coins, gems and glass, and specimens of 
Greek and Roman marble. 

Returning to Murray Dodge, at the right 
is Marquand Chapel (R. M. Hunt, archi- 
tect), in which the University chapel exer- 
cises are held. The chapel was the gift of 
Henry G. Marquand and was built in 1881. 
The mural decorations are the Augustus St. 
Gaudens heroic bronze high relief of the late 
President McCosh, erected by the Class of 
1879, a low relief memorial tablet in marble 
to Professor Joseph Henry by Louis St. 
Gaudens, a bronze relief of Professor Ar- 
nold Guyot by Olin Warren, set in a frag- 
ment of a glacial boulder, the rest of which 
lies by the steps of Nassau Hall, a marble 
medallion portrait tablet to the Rev. James 
O. Murray, first dean of the University, and 
three bronze tablets, one to the Faculty of 
the early sixties, one in memory of Dr. 
George Y. Taylor, of the Class of 1882, and 
Dr. Cortlandt V. R. Hodge, of the Class of 
1893, niedical missionaries killed in the Box- 



The University 89 

er Rebellion in China, and one to Daniel M. 
Rogers, of the Class of 1903, massacred in 
Turkey. The south and north windows by 
Lathrop are in memory of Frederick A. 
Marquand of the Class of 1876, and William 
Earl Dodge, of the Class of 1879, respective- 
ly. The west window by Tiffany is in mem- 
ory of Horatio W. Garrett, of the Class of 
1895. A temporary memorial panel bearing 
the names of Princeton men who lost their 
lives in the war is placed in the vestibule. 

To the left of the Chapel is the entrance 
gateway to Prospect, the official residence 
of the President of the University, a large 
and stately stone house with beautiful out- 
look over an Italian garden and a wide ex- 
panse of meadows and woods, with a view 
of the Highlands of the Navesink in the dis- 
tance. The house was built in 1849 by 
Thomas F. Potter, a resident of Princeton, 
on the site of the i8th century farmhouse 
of Colonel George Morgan, gentleman farm- 
er, Indian agent and pioneer western ex- 
plorer. Colonel Morgan was a scientific 
farmer whose estate was famous in his day, 
bringing him into association with Wash- 



90 Guide to Princeton 

ington, Franklin, and many other promi- 
nent men of the time. Young elms from 
his gardens were used in the planting of 
Independence Square at Philadelphia in 
1785 ; he was a frequent contributor to agri- 
cultural journals, and was awarded a gold 
medal by the Philadelphia Society for Pro- 
moting Agriculture, the first to be given in 
America. Some of his 'Trospect" account 
books are in the University Library. His 
friendly relations with the Delaware tribe 
of Indians are of record; family tradition 
states that it was at Prospect that he re- 
ceived in 1776 from the Delawares the title 
of Taimenend or Tamany, the name of their 
patron saint. In 1779 a delegation of ten 
Delaware chieftains visited him bringing to 
Princeton three boys to be educated at the 
college at government expense, and setting 
up their wigwams on the "Prospect" lawns. 
In 1 781 some 2000 mutinous soldiers of the 
Pennsylvania Line, holding captive their 
general, Anthony Wayne, reached Princeton 
on their way to Philadelphia, and pitched 
camp at ''Prospect." After Lafayette and 
others had failed to settle their grievances 



The University 91 

a Congressional committee headed by Presi- 
dent Joseph Reed of Pennsylvania and Dr. 
Witherspoon, President of Princeton, suc- 
ceeded in arranging matters. In 1783 the 
Princeton sessions of the Continental Con- 
gress were held at "Prospect" until the visi- 
tors moved to Nassau Hall. The room where 
Congress sat at 'Trospect" was thereafter 
known as "the Congress Room." In 1794 
troops on their way to put down the Whis- 
key Insurrection were quartered at "Pros 
pect." An account of the estate may be 
found in the Princeton University Bulletin 
for June 1904. 

North of the chapel stands the Joseph 
Henry House, the official residence of the 
Dean of the College. This house was built 
for Professor Joseph Henry (see tablet in 
Chapel) in 1837 ^^^ originally stood on 
the opposite side of the campus, where Re- 
union Plall is located. It was to this house 
that Professor Henry used to send tele- 
graph messages from his classroom in the 
old Philosophical Hall, as already stated. 
The former name of the roadway on which 
the chapel and the Henry House now stands 



92 Guide to Princeton 

was College Lane forming the entrance to 
"Prospect." 

North of the Henry House is Dickinson 
Hall, used entirely for lectures and recita- 
tions, erected during the beginning of Presi- 
dent McCosh's administration as one of the 
greatest needs of the institution, and named 
after the first president. The top floor con- 
sists of one large room called Examination 
Hall. 

East of Dickinson is the Class of 1877 
Laboratory at present used by the Depart- 
ment of Chemistry as a laboratory for or- 
ganic chemistry, but given by the Class of 
1877 in 1888 as a biological laboratory. 

Still further east is the John C. Green 
School of Science building erected in 
1873 by the John C. Green Estate and de- 
voted entirely to the Department of Civil 
Engineering. Across Washington Road 
from the School of Science building is the 
Chemical Laboratory, built in 1891, also 
by the John C. Green Estate. 

Returning past Dickinson Hall the Uni- 
versity Library is reached, composed of 
two buildings united by an entrance hall 



The University 93 

containing the delivery desk and the card 
catalogues. The building to the right on en- 
tering is the Chancellor Green Library, 
built by John C. Green in 1873, in memory 
of Chancellor Henry Woodhull Green 
(Class of 1820) of New Jersey, and the first 
separate library building owned by the Uni- 
versity. It is now the main reading room 
of the library and contains some 30,000 ref- 
erence books and periodicals. The marble 
busts (beginning with the right) are Presi- 
dent Witherspoon (presented by the Class 
of 1876), President McCosh (presented by 
the Class of 1873), John C. Green, brother 
of the Chancellor, founder of the John C. 
Green School of Science, and benefactor of 
the University, President Maclean, Class of 
1816 (by Calverley), and Charles Hodge, 
Class of 181 5. Behind the staircase lead- 
ing to the gallery is the Charles E. Green 
Memorial Alcove, in memory of Charles 
E. Green, of the Class of i860, son of the 
Chancellor and a trustee of the University 
for many years and, as administrator of 
the John C. Green Estate, one of the Uni- 
versity's most generous and consistent bene- 



94 Guide to Princeton 

factors. The Trustees' Room at the west 
end of the Chancellor Green Library is the 
meeting room of the Board of Triistees. 
The oak panellings and decorations (Ralph 
Adams Cram, architect) are a further me- 
morial of John C. and Charles E. Green. 

The portion of the building south of the 
Chancellor Green Library is the Pyne Li- 
brary Building in form of a hollow square 
(W. A. Potter, architect), erected by the late 
Mrs. Percy Rivington Pyne as a sesqui- 
centennial gift, and containing the main 
collection housed in two stack buildings, 
administration and cataloguing rooms, bind- 
ery, photostat rooms, seminary rooms for 
research, special reading rooms for History 
and Political Science and for Economics, 
and the Exhibition Room. Portions of 
the twenty-six special collections of books 
and manuscripts owned by the Univer- 
sity Library may be seen in the Exhibi- 
tion Room. A complete list is to be found 
in the University Catalogue. Mention may 
be made of the Morgan Collection of 
Virgils (670 volumes, chiefly prior to the 
i8th century), presented by J. S. Morgan, 



The University 95 

of the Class of 1888, and containing all the 
rarest editions with scores of individual 
copies of extraordinary association interest; 
the Autograph Manuscript Collection 
(8,000 documents) relating chiefly to the 
history of the University; the Garrett and 
the Lytic European War Collections; 
the Collection of Cuneiform Documents 
(1,100 items) ; the Patterson Collection 
of rare and choicely bound books, chiefly 
editions of Horace (1,000 volumes); the 
Hutton Memorial Collection (over 800 
association books, autographed portraits, 
paintings, letters, playbills, etc.) from the 
library of the late Laurence Hutton; and 
the extremely remarkable Meirs Collec- 
tion of Cruikshankiana, presented by 
Mr. R. W. Meirs of the Class of 1888. This 
collection is probably the most complete 
of its kind, containing about 900 volumes of 
Cruikshankiana, with nearly 700 broadsides, 
original drawings, paintings, and autograph 
letters by or relating to the artist, George 
Cruikshank. In an alcove of the Exhibition 
Room is the unique Hutton Collection 
of Deathmasks — over 80 masks (life and 



96 Guide to Princeton 

death) presented by Mr. Laurence Hutton, 
and described in his volume Portraits in 
Plaster, which gives in detail the curious 
history of this largest single collection of its 
kind in existence. Other unusual collec- 
tions, kept in separate alcoves elsewhere in 
the building, are the Princeton Univer- 
sity Collection (8,000 volumes of Prince- 
toniana, relating to the history of the 
University or written by and about alumni 
and officers of the University, including the 
large collection presented by Col. William 
Libbey, Class of 1877) ; the Garrett Col- 
lection of Oriental Manuscripts (2,400 
in number) chiefly in Arabic but in- 
cluding some 25 other languages ; the ex- 
traordinary Pliny Fisk Statistical Li- 
brary (5,400 volumes, 14,500 pamphlets, 
44,000 broadsides, etc., and several hundred 
thousand clippings mounted and classified) ; 
and the Pierson Civil War Collection 
(6,700 volumes, 2,500 pamphlets and several 
thousand clippings). The Benjamin 
Strong European War Collection, con- 
taining full sets of official publications, state 
papers, pamphlets, proclamations, posters. 



The University 97 

emergency currency and newspaper clip- 
pings, all relating to the European War, is 
distinctly exceptional and will be of inesti- 
mable value in future years as historical ma- 
terial on the war. The newspaper history 
alone consists of over 90 enormous volumes. 
Among the thousands of posters are the re- 
cruiting posters of the Allies, and national 
loan posters including the American Liberty 
Loan posters. Scores of cities are repre- 
sented among the sets of emergency cur- 
rency, some of which was issued a few days 
after the war broke out in August 1914. 
The collection includes all kinds of printed 
matter such as desk cards and envelope 
"stickers." Much of the ephemeral material 
is unique and cannot be duplicated. 

The Library contains 400,000 volumes ex- 
clusive of pamphlets. During the term it is 
open on week days from 8 a. m. to 10 p. m., 
and on Sundays from 12 m. to 5 p. m. In 
vacation it is open from 9 a. m. to i p. m. 

Leaving the Library by the west entrance, 
the main quadrangle of the campus is 
reached, formed by the Library, the marble 
Halls, West College and the rear of Nas- 



98 Guide to Princeton 

sau Hall. Note the Library Tower, and the 
statues over the arch, above and front, 
James Madison, Class of 1771, President 
of the United States, and at the side Oliver 
Ellsworth, Class of 1766, Chief Justice of 
the United States; below are Presidents 
Witherspoon (left) and McCosh (right). 
On the tower is a large sun dial with the 
motto "Pereunt et imputantur." 

In the arch is a bronze tablet to the mem- 
ory of Algernon B. Roberts, of the Class of 

1896, and at the corner of the south wall a 
tablet to the memory of George K. Edwards, 
Class of 1889, *'a loyal son of Princeton," 
whose undergraduate room in East College, 
where he died during Commencement in 

1897, w^s approximately on this spot. 
The Big Cannon mentioned earlier, and in 

the center of the quadrangle, is a Revolu- 
tionary relic which after lying on the cam- 
pus for many years was taken to New 
Brunswick during the War of 1812 to de- 
fend the city from an expected enemy at- 
tack. It remained there until 1836 when it 
was brought back to Princeton by under- 
graduates for a Fourth of July celebration ; 



The University 99 

it was planted in its present position in 1838. 
Around it are held the Cannon Exercises of 
Commencement Week, championship bon- 
fires and other celebrations. It also was the 
scene formerly of the freshman and sopho- 
more "Cannon Rush." 

The Little Cannon between the two 
Halls, and behind the Franklin Murphy 
Flagstaff (given by Franklin Murphy, Jr., 
Class of 1895) is also Revolutionary and for 
many years was used as a corner post on 
Nassau Street. Removed to the campus it 
was the cause of the "Cannon War" with 
Rutgers College in 1875 when it was taken 
from Princeton to New Brunswick by Rut- 
gers students under the mistaken impression 
that it was a lost cannon belonging to that 
city. After a retaliatory raid by Princeton 
students the respective faculties of the two 
institutions appointed a joint committee 
which settled the question amicably and 
finally. Behind the Little Cannon has been 
placed a German field-piece captured at 
Chateau Thierry, France, in which sector 
during the European War Princetonians 
were especially conspicuous. 



lOO Guide to Princeton 

West College, a dormitory built in 1836, 
is the duplicate of East College which stood 
on the opposite side of the quadrangle until 
removed in 1896 to make room for the new 
library building. 

The present marble buildings of The 
Halls (east, the American Whig Society; 
west, the Cliosophic Society) date from 
1893 being erected on the sites of the wood- 
en structures similar in appearance built in 
the end of the thirties. Previously, the 
Societies occupied rooms in Nassau Hall, 
Stanhope Hall and Philosophical Hall. 
They are the oldest college literary socie- 
ties in America having had a continuous his- 
tory of more than 150 years. Founded be- 
fore the Revolution (about 1765) as the 
Well-Meaning and the Plain Dealing So- 
cieties, the latter in 1769 assumed the name, 
the American Whig Society, and in 1770 
the Well-Meaning Society took the name of 
the Cliosophic Society. They were secret 
literary societies but with far wider scope 
than the Greek fraternities which were ban- 
ished from Princeton. Until recent years 
they exerted a most important influence on 



The University loi 

the campus being the center of college rival- 
ries and loyalties until the extraordinary 
growth and organization of undergraduate 
extra-curriculum activities overshadowed 
their purely literary and forensic purposes. 
The buildings contain libraries, auditoriums, 
reading rooms, and recreation rooms and the 
societies maintain numerous prize contests, 
and regular courses in composition, debating, 
and oratory, on the completion of which di- 
plomas are awarded. Older graduates of 
Princeton have considered the training of 
the Halls the most valuable part of their col- 
lege experience. Among the founders of 
CHo Hall were William Paterson, Oliver 
Ellsworth, and Luther Martin ; among those 
of Whig Hall were James Madison, Hugh 
Brackenridge and Philip Freneau. See 
Charles R. Williams, The Cliosophic So- 
ciety, published at the sesquicentennial of 
of the founding of the Society, for a record 
of Clio Hall. 

The Graduate College. The easiest ap- 
proach to the Graduate College is by way 
of University Place, Dickinson Street, Alex- 
ander Street, and the driveway skirting the 



102 Guide to Princeton 

campus of the Princeton Theological Semi- 
nary on the south. The group of buildings 
will be seen on reaching the edge of the 
University Golf Links. The Class of 1886 
Golf Club House is passed on the left 
(presented by the Class for the use of the 
University Golf Club and containing the 
usual conveniences, with dormitory and 
kitchen facilities for members of the Class 
at their reunions). 

The Graduate College (R. A. Cram, 
architect) stands on part of the Revolution- 
ary battlefield where the closing engagement 
of January 3, 1777, occurred. The retreat 
of the British followed in general the direc- 
tion toward their base in Nassau Hall which 
the visitor has just followed in the reverse 
order, with the diflference, to be noted, that 
at the time of the battle this whole region 
was farm land and open country. 

Visitors may obtain a guide at the Por- 
ter's Lodge, in the main entrance. The 
Graduate College group of buildings is 
formed around a central quadrangle called 
Thomson College (named for U. S. Sen- 
ator John R. Thomson, by his widow Mrs. 



The University 103 

Jo'sephine Thomson Swann of Princeton, 
part of whose estate was left by her to the 
Graduate College). The student residential 
and social rooms, and the kitchen and ser- 
vice quarters are in this portion of the 
group. Adjoining the main college gate is 
the Cleveland Tower, 40 feet square and 
173 feet high, with a memorial chamber in 
its base where it is hoped a statue of Presi- 
dent Cleveland may be placed. On the 
arch is the inscription : 'Tn remembrance 
of Grover Cleveland, President of the 
United States. Public office is a public 
trust." The tower was erected in 1912 by 
public subscriptions of the people of the 
United States as a memorial of Mr. Cleve- 
land. At the time of his death he was a 
resident of Princeton, a trustee of the Uni- 
versity, and as chairman of the Trustees' 
Committee on the Graduate School was 
deeply interested in the planning and erec- 
tion of the Graduate College. There is a 
curious echo in the memorial chamber. A 
turret stair leads to the top of the tower, 
from which the finest view in Princeton is 
obtained. 



104 Guide to Princeton 

At the southwest corner of Thomson 
quadrangle is the Pyne Tower (named for 
the donor, Mr. M. Taylor Pyne, of the 
Class of 1877) which contains besides the 
apartment of the Master in residence the 
vestibule connecting the Common Room 
with Procter Hall, the dining hall and 
chief public room of the Graduate Col- 
lege. This hall was erected by William 
Cooper Procter, Class of 1883, as a memo- 
rial to his parents. It is 36 by 108 feet. 
The great western Memorial Window 
over the high table is the co-labor of Mr. 
and Mrs. William Willet, the artists of the 
chancel window of the West Point Chapel. 
The window represents the Light of the 
World illuminating the Seven Liberal Arts 
of Christian Learning. In the predella, or 
lower part, of the window, is the Child Jesus 
in the Temple, surrounded by members of 
the Sanhedrin, among whom may be noticed 
Nicodemus on his left, Joseph of Arimathea 
on his right, with the long beard, and Ga- 
maliel studying a scroll of the law. Above 
the predella is the Latin text: ''Qui ad 
jiistitiam enidiunt multos quasi stellae in 



The University 105 

perpetuas aeternitates' (They that instruct 
many in righteousness shall shine as the 
stars for ever and ever). 

The seven lancet windows above the pre- 
della contain the figures of Seven Liberal 
Arts — Dialectica (or Logic) in the center, 
on the right Rhetorica, Astronomica, Musi- 
ca; on the left Grammatica, Geometrica, 
Arithmetica. At the base of each lancet is 
emblazoned a shield with a device appro- 
priate to the Art symbolized above it. The 
traceries above the lancets are filled with 
stars in a deep blue night sky. Cut in the 
stone below the window is the Latin text: 
"Nee vocemini magistri quia magister v es- 
ter unus est Christus" (And call not your- 
selves masters, for One is your Master — 
even Christ). 

The manner of treatment is the medie- 
val, the artists having looked to the 14th cen- 
tury for their inspiration; only pure colors 
(about eight in number) are used; and 
these have been superimposed on one an- 
other without paints or enamels; the glass 
is blown, and the coloring imperishable. 
The window at sunset is unforgettable. 



io6 Guide to Princeton 

The carving over the fireplace in Procter 
Hall is intricate and curious. Hidden in 
the foliage of the oaktree may be found 
lizards, squirrels, caterpillars, butterflies, a 
rabbit, etc., and a tiger. The portraits in 
the Hall are the gift of Mr. Thomas S. 
Clarke, Class of 1882, and the great organ 
in the gallery is the gift of Mr. Henry C. 
Frick. The carved beams and rafters of the 
roof are of oak, chiefly from old ship tim- 
bers. The panelling and screen are also 
oak and repay close study. 

Wyman House, the residence of the 
Dean of the Graduate School, adjoins Proc- 
ter Hall. Over the mantel in the Dean's 
library are hung the flint-lock musket, pow- 
der horn and sword carried in the Battle of 
Princeton by the father of Mr. Isaac C. 
Wyman, Class of 1848, who bequeathed 
his estate to the Graduate College. The 
sword and musket were carried in the 
French and Indian War by Mr. Wyman's 
grandfather. 

The Dean's Garden, under the shadow of 
the great tower, contains ivies from Haddon 
Hall, England, from the Martin Luther 



The University 107 

House at Wittenberg, and from Bemerton, 
the home of George Herbert. Set in the 
garden wall are window arches from Uni- 
versity College, Oxford, of which Shelley 
was a member, and window bases from 
Christ's College, Cambridge, Milton's col- 
lege, given by the Master of Christ's, Vice- 
Chancellor Shipley. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 





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